This morning at church I cleaned the bathrooms. I saw a post on their website the other day where this girl was looking for someone to take her shift because she's out of town. It said, "Love cleaning? Get paid to help keep Oasis beautiful."
I don't really love cleaning. I like things to be clean, especially my things, but this is my church and I want to want to feel ownership of its cleanliness, and I need the money, so I figured I'd respond.
I wasn't really sure if I'd get it. Oasis is a big church, and the post said they prefer someone who's already on a serving team, and people at Oasis LOVE to serve (EVERYBODY serves), and there are tons of actor/artist-types that go there that I'm sure need odd jobs and money, and the post had been up for a day, so..
Yeah, she totally responded to me within fifteen minutes, and I had the job.
I almost didn't want the job, not because bathrooms are "beneath me," but because I get nervous about doing things I've never done before (like I didn't even know where all the bathrooms were - it's a new building), and because I figured I'd run into a bunch of people that remember me from last time (over a year ago, before I moved), and they'd be like, "Omigosh good to see you," and I'd be like, "Yeahhh, you too," but like forget their name or something, and it'd be really awkward.
Well, that did happen. When you're at church from 9 to 2 running around to different bathrooms all day slash hanging out in the lobby waiting for someone to spill something (the other part of my job), you pretty much see everyone.
People started coming up to me almost immediately, mostly girls, some guys. Nathan (the guy working with me and showing me what to do) must have been like, Wow I thought you said you didn't know anyone. (I had told him I didn't know the girl that I was replacing and that I hadn't been at the church in over a year.) But apparently everyone remembered me or at least sort of did. One girl was like, "Heyyy," and then after we chatted for a minute was like, "Wait, have you been here?"
"No, I was gone for a year."
Gone for a year. I was gone for a year, yet everyone's still here and happy to see me, and I was happy to see them. A couple hours in, I found myself calling to people I knew from across the room and actually being the initiator of awkward reunions, and it was pretty great.
There's a reason I had this job today. It may have been partially to clean, partially to make money, but mostly I think it was because God's tired of me running in and out of church for the service, barely talking to anyone, and going home. (For the record, I'm tired of me doing that too, but what do you do when the service is over and you don't have anything to do? Last week I signed up for a connect group after the service, but that only took thirty seconds, and then I left.) I'm usually better at talking to people when I have a job that keeps me around them, so I think this is exactly what I needed. God always knows, so I'm glad he showed me the job and prompted me to take it in spite of my fear and hesitancy.
(And now I know where everything is in the church too!-- Sort of.)
